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Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was ...
In texts that are believed to have been written according to this view, the cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and textual imagery of late alchemical works are supposed to contain multiple layers of meanings, allegories, and references to other equally cryptic works; which must be laboriously decoded to discover their true meaning.
The third pictured, alchemical for black sulfur, is also known as a 'Leviathan Cross' or 'Satan's Cross'. Sun: Alchemy and Hermeticism: A symbol used with many different meanings, including but not limited to, gold, citrinitas, sulfur, the divine spark of man, nobility and incorruptibility. Sun cross: Iron Age religions and later gnosticism and ...
A green lion consuming the Sun is a common alchemical image and is seen in texts such as the Rosary of the Philosophers. The symbol is a metaphor for aqua regia (the green lion) consuming matter (the Sun), gold. In alchemical and Hermetic traditions, suns are used to symbolize a variety of concepts, much like the Sun in astrology.
For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in alchemy. The philosopher's stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, divine illumination, and heavenly bliss. Efforts to discover the philosopher's stone were known as the Magnum Opus ("Great Work"). [3]
An ouroboros in a 1478 drawing in an alchemical tract [1]. The ouroboros or uroboros (/ ˌ j ʊər ə ˈ b ɒr ə s /; [2] / ˌ ʊər ə ˈ b ɒr ə s / [3]) is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon [4] eating its own tail.
Planetary symbols are used in astrology and traditionally in astronomy to represent a classical planet (which includes the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The classical symbols were also used in alchemy for the seven metals known to the ancients, which were associated with the planets, and in calendars for the seven days of the week associated with the seven planets.
The filius philosophorum (Latin for "the philosophers' child", i.e. made by the true students of philosophy) is a symbol in alchemy. In some texts it is equated with the philosopher's stone ( lapis philosophorum ), but in others it assumes its own symbolic meanings.